The Challenges of Reconciliation Politics: Political Meanings and Implications of Reconciliation Practices and Policies in the Aftermath of Mass Violence

In recent decades, there has been a growing trend in both academia and the policy-making of international organisations worldwide to analyse and incorporate policies and initiatives to promote reconciliation processes. These are seen as crucial to building sustainable, inclusive, democratic and peaceful societies in the long term, and to ensuring that human rights violations and crimes against humanity do not occur again. But what do we mean when we talk about reconciliation in a conflict or post-conflict context? What kind of impact can different and even competing reconciliation practices and policies have in post-violence conflicts?

In peace and conflict studies, reconciliation usually refers to transformative processes of dealing with conflictual and fractured relationships. However, this concept is multifaceted and can have different meanings and political, social and legal implications in different contexts. For example, while in countries such as South Africa or Rwanda the concept of reconciliation may have been associated with nation-building projects, the non-violent coexistence of victims and perpetrators within communities, as an instrumentalist or pragmatic way of living together, or even with development and poverty reduction, in several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, the term has been used as a synonym for impunity and has been used primarily to justify a public stance of 'forgive and forget' about past crimes. This explains the deeply contested nature of the concept in several settings. To address these debates and challenges, the presentation will analyse the polysemic nature of the “reconciliation” concept and the multiple concrete implications different in post auhtortitarian and conflict context. This will include an analysis of the conceptual and political foundations of the term, as well as the main potential challenges as a practice to achieve long lasting peace.